Chapter 20 Who is the best high school student?
As for beating Garnett in a shooting contest... He was very excited when he first defeated Marbury, a famous player in his memory, but after being challenged so many times and winning easily every time, there was nothing to be excited about. Winning the mid-range shooting contest against Garnett did not make Zhang Hao excited.
He knew that apart from mid-range shooting and running and jumping ability, he was far behind Garnett in other aspects, even in ball control .
Back in the hotel room, Bibby was reading again. Although he is black and has some Chinese ancestry, he looks white. His hobbies are different from those of most black players. His biggest hobby besides playing basketball is reading. He plans to complete enough credits before participating in the draft in college. Diplomas and knowledge are very important. He has a complete plan for the future, not just playing basketball. Playing basketball has lasted for more than ten years at most, while most players only have two or three years of professional career. The future is far more than just basketball.
Zhang Hao did not disturb Bibby. He took a shower, lay down and prepared to go to bed early as he had to get up early for training the next morning.
He didn't have extra practice at night because every morning someone from the next room would come and call them to practice together.
"Special signing player Zhang Hao ability rating: 65
Physical fitness: speed 90, strength 76, jumping 93, flexibility 95, stamina 90...
Shooting: 3-pointer 51, mid-range 90, layup 86…
Skills: ball handling 54, passing 44, catch-and-shoot 86…”
After looking at the evaluation of his own abilities, Zhang Hao felt a little disappointed. After the rapid improvement phase of nearly a month, the growth rate of his strength suddenly slowed down. He also knew that this was normal. He was a person who never procrastinated in training and worked very hard. It was impossible for him to make any big progress in a week under normal training. His three-point shooting and passing skills improved a little, but there was basically no change in other ability values.
But putting aside these disappointments, Zhang Hao does not think that his efforts during this period were useless!
In the two years before participating in the McDonald's Slam Dunk Contest and the Adidas training camp, Zhang Hao didn't encounter many strong opponents, and there were only a few who could be compared with the high school students in this training camp. Now he can see a bunch of them every day. Even if it is just watching their training or watching other high school students compete one-on-one from time to time, it is an excellent learning opportunity.
What really matters is what he learned from the shooting coaches and trainers, and how to train to make his shooting better after the training camp!
…
Many people in the training camp were worried every day, fearing that they would be eliminated, because in the end only 18 people advanced.
But after the initial test, some people actually did not experience any so-called worries at all, and the training camp did not put any pressure on them.
It is true that the training camp is to select some players through some things, but the most fundamental thing is the ability of the players. Only capable players can make the elite competition more exciting.
This world has never been fair.
Relying on his top NBA mid-range shooting ability with an ability value of 90 and top running and jumping abilities, Zhang Hao was not affected by external pressure from the beginning. He had many concerns at the beginning because he had not yet realized that he was already quite outstanding among high school students.
The penultimate day of training was a team coordination training under the guidance of a hired unemployed tactical coach.
From the 36 high school students with the strongest talents and personal abilities, a number of high school students with excellent teamwork will be selected.
As a player who can run and catch the ball, and cut and catch the ball, Zhang Hao has been doing things like teamwork on the court since he came to the United States. Since he is very talented in this area, the head coach of Inglewood High School has been training him in this area. Although his running ability is not very good, he has good physical strength. Among the remaining 36 high school students, except Hamilton who can compare with Zhang Hao in this aspect, the others are far behind.
However, for some people, the last two days were very cruel. After the first day of training, 8 people were eliminated. The remaining 28 people were redivided into 4 groups after the training on the afternoon of May 15. On the last day, 10 people will be eliminated!
Zhang Hao had already been confident that he would not be the one to be eliminated. However, there was one person who remained until now. When he watched his team's training, he found that the other team cooperated very well. Unlike when he was in the high school team, where he had to do everything by himself, this guy played more freely.
This guy... no, it's the younger brother, the 17-year-old Corey Benjamin. Corey Benjamin, who used to find ways to provoke Zhang Hao whenever he met him, has not bothered Zhang Hao since the second day of the training camp.
This guy is just pretentious. When Corey Benjamin was bothering Zhang Hao before, Zhang Hao found it annoying. But now that he doesn't bother him anymore, he feels a little uncomfortable.
Zhang Hao's group was disbanded just 24 hours after it was formed, and four teammates who had been training for a day were eliminated, leaving only him and Marbury... Zhang Hao has become accustomed to this, as he has seen more than 70 people eliminated in the past few days.
Some things in the Adidas training camp are really good, perhaps even better than those in the NCAA. Some players leave NCAA teams because they are graduating or have to participate in the draft and play professional games and can no longer play college games. If you really step into the professional arena, you will definitely see teammates leave every year because of their lack of strength or various reasons... or they may leave on their own.
The Adidas training camp uses a daily elimination system instead of training all members until the end, so that high school students can experience the cruelty of society in advance.
On May 16, the last day of the training camp, after another day of team cooperation training under the guidance of the tactical coach, a week of training camp passed.
At 5:30 pm, the final 18-man roster was announced!
The 10 people who were eliminated in the last round received a notice after the training, asking them to go back to the hotel and leave tomorrow.
The people who returned to the training ground after taking a shower and resting at 5:30 were the remaining 18 people.
This is what Zhang Hao found out after he took a shower and returned to the training ground, and as expected, he was selected for the elite competition!
Zhang Hao stood together with Kobe, Hamilton, Bibby and a group of four. Marbury originally wanted to join in the fun, but the three people next to Zhang Hao had such a strong and cold aura that Marbury couldn't stand it. He lost his temper and just left.
Finally, it was the last step of the training camp. Zhang Hao was very excited. He really learned a lot in this training camp, especially the team cooperation. His previous team cooperation could only rely on physical running around, finding opportunities to shoot, and the cooperation in high school games... Thanks to his teammate Pierce.
But here, he felt for the first time what true cooperation was.
He is now very curious about the final grouping. Tomorrow is the preparation and media day, the day after tomorrow is the game, and then the time will come to announce the two team rosters.
Kobe and Bibby were also looking forward to it, while Hamilton just followed the arrangements as usual.
Kobe and Bibby had very different ideas. Bibby would look at Zhang Hao from time to time. He wanted to form a team with Zhang Hao. Who wouldn't want to partner with such an off-ball shooter?
And he wanted to see Zhang Hao's strength on the court from the perspective of a teammate.
As for Kobe...he doesn't want to be on the same team with Zhang Hao, nor does he want to be on the same team with Garnett!
During this training camp, Kobe gained some popularity initially due to his father appearing on TV shows showing off his baby, but later on, he was no longer the focus of the training camp.
The strongest one is Garnett. It is said that all the NBA lottery teams will send people to watch the elite game on May 18th.
The most amazing thing is Odom. Just as Adidas advertised, no matter what position he plays, he can rank among the top three high school students.
The representative of the counterattack is Zhang Hao. After the team training began, Adidas compiled a collection of videos of Zhang Hao accepting challenges and posted it online. Thousands of people spread it through the Internet, and even some sports newspapers reported that Zhang Hao crushed Garnett in the mid-range shot duel, knowing that Zhang Hao would be hard to lose in the mid-range shot duel.
The undefeated mid-range shooting king, although he has to be marked as a high school student, Zhang Hao’s fame has indeed increased a lot.
He has superb athletic ability and a strong mid-range shot. Although he is not good in technique, passing and control, it is already very impressive for a player to have both athletic ability and shooting, and a good height.
Kobe, despite doing everything well, failed to stand out in the training phase.
Then, Kobe can only choose to dominate the game.
Moreover, he wants to fight against the heroes alone!
This training camp really surprised Kobe. When he was in Pennsylvania, he was known as the strongest high school student. Before he was 17 years old, he had already broken some records held by Chamberlain, the basketball emperor. He came to this training camp with the mentality of "all the people here are garbage", but he met Garnett who was more versatile than him, Zhang Hao who was better at mid-range shooting than him, and Bibby who was better at pure technology than him...
But even so, he still wants to win!
Zhang Hao was looking at the 18 people who finally stayed. In addition to Mike Bibby, Hamilton and Kobe next to him, seven other famous players who he thought would be in the future NBA, namely Garnett, Rahim, Jamison, Marbury, Billups, Odom and O'Neal, were indeed included in the elite competition list. Among them, O'Neal, like Odom and Kobe, was only 16 years old.
But that guy - Corey Benjamin, actually stayed until the end!
Zhang Hao was not familiar with the other six people, but after a week, he had a certain understanding of these people.
Rodney Buford, a guard from Vincent High School in Wisconsin, Scott Padgett, a forward from St. Xavier High School in Kentucky, two cousins, center Calvin Booth and point guard Tim Booth from Madison High School in Ohio, Quincy Lewis, a tall guard from Hour Park High School in Arkansas, and Tyson Wheeler, who is only 175 cm tall and from New London High School in Connecticut.
Of these players who stayed, what Zhang Hao was most interested in was not the super talents who would definitely shine in the NBA, but the Booth brothers. Although they were cousins, Calvin Booth was 208 cm tall and Tim Booth was 183 cm tall, and they did not look alike...
But twins have half the genetic difference, not to mention cousins? Zhang Hao didn't think it was that strange.
The not-so-long waiting time passed quickly, and the staff came to post the final list of finalists!
Kobe first found his own name, then found Garnett's name on another team, and was ecstatic! Then he found Zhang Hao's name, and was even more excited. He also found the names of Rahim and Bibby. Although he didn't find Odom's name, he knew that Odom was on the same team with him, but there were only two of the most famous people in this training camp on his side, and the others were on the other side!
This is the opportunity Kobe wants to fight alone against the crowd!
…
…
Team A:
Backcourt: Kobe Bryant, Stephon Marbury, Tim Booth, Richard Hamilton, Quincy Lewis.
Frontcourt: Lamar Odom, Jermaine O'Neal , Antawn Jamison, Scott Padgett.
Group B:
Backcourt: Mike Bibby, Chauncey Billups, Rodney Buford, Corey Benjamin, Tyler Wheeler.
Frontcourt: Kevin Garnett, Shareef Rahim, Calvin Booth, Zhang Hao.
On the morning of May 17, the two teams immediately began real cooperation training. In the previous two days, the tactical coach was actually teaching them how to cooperate. Now, they are really preparing for tomorrow's game.
As for the current training, Adidas has opened up filming permission. Although it is during the playoffs, there are many media coming and the players in training are more motivated.
Zhang Hao has been very excited since the final list came out yesterday. 10 future world-class stars! At least 10!
Kobe thought that all his teammates except Odom were traitors...but Zhang Hao didn't think so. When he saw the lineup of the opposing Group A, he almost cursed!
Marbury, Kobe, Hamilton, Odom, Jamison, and O'Neal Jr., what a fantastic lineup!
Fortunately, their Group B is not bad either, and such a competition is very rare. Even if the strongest players on their side go to the opposite side, Zhang Hao will not back down.
Just being teammates with Garnett...
"Axel, are you blind? You should have taken advantage of Sharif's penetration to get out, but you kept going in. You have strong athletic ability, but your impact is not as good as Sharif's? Do you want to do everything by yourself? Then Mike and I will give you the ball, okay..."
Zhang Hao was scolded by Garnett as soon as the training started this morning.
The key is that Zhang Hao has no way to fight back because he really didn't do well.
In fact, the coach was not that strict. In the coach's opinion, Zhang Hao's situation was normal. A high school student learned the tactical movement in two days? That would be weird.
The fastest way for high school students to integrate into the team is the core style of play. For example, Garnett and Bibby, their Group B tactics are built around the pick-and-roll offense of this inside and outside combination.
Then, Zhang Hao started to be criticized, but at this time, Zhang Hao did not refute, because Garnett was really aware of this aspect. Although he had a vicious mouth and used a lot of swear words, Zhang Hao really learned a lot.
Compared with a coach, Garnett's off-ball awareness as a player brought more obvious help to Zhang Hao.
Garnett didn't say anything about Zhang Hao, and he was also very diligent in learning how to make the correct running position... Although it was still very bad for the time being, but with this attitude... Garnett would not let go of this good opportunity to criticize Zhang Hao!
If you can avoid talking nicely, you definitely won’t talk nicely!
What can be learned from two days of team cooperation learning and one morning of team cooperation training?
In fact, it didn't help much, it just made the players understand each other a little better.
But this group of high school students don’t think there is any problem, as these teenagers have endless energy!
In such a game where money is not involved for the players, their motivation comes from their desire for victory and their competitive spirit!
Although there are players like Garnett and Zhang Hao who came to the training camp with a purpose, they have not lost the purest impulse to pursue victory!
At lunch time, a "spy" sneaked into Group B. Marbury sat next to Zhang Hao with a depressed look on his face and complained for a long time about why the two of them were not assigned to the same group, which made Bibby next to him want to kick him away.
After lunch, Kobe, Bibby, Garnett and Rahim were all invited to be interviewed. Although Zhang Hao's fame has soared through Adidas's operation, it is only a relative increase compared to before. He has not been tested in actual combat and has not reached the point of being interviewed by the media.
But they also had a group interview. At 1:30 p.m., most of the remaining 14 players were taken to an interview room by Adidas staff to be interviewed by a reporter from Sports Illustrated.
Some of the questions were formulaic, but most of the questions that were not formulaic were also very routine. After all, they were all high school students, and it was difficult for them to hype anything up. Just like Adidas’ previous hype about Zhang Hao being the “invincible mid-range shooter king,” it was just hyping up how great Zhang Hao’s mid-range shooting was, but it did not belittle anyone else.
Finally, the reporter asked a question: "Who do you think is the best player in this training camp?"
Marbury answered first: "Probably Kobe Bryant. I trained with him all morning today. He is so scary. Lamar Odom is also very strong. He actually only turned 16 in November. I played against him. He is so good that it is unbelievable. I heard that the Knicks are already paying attention to him."
O'Neal said: "I also think Kobe is the best."
Billups said: "I think Kevin is the best. He is the strongest high school student I have ever seen."
"It's hard to say who is the strongest, but Lamar is so talented, I envy him..."
“Although Sharif is low-key, I think he may be the strongest.”
"Mike is also very strong..."
A group of people were chattering about their opinions, but the candidates they mentioned had one thing in common - they were all from their team.
This situation was expected by the reporter who asked the question, and it was not a question that would cause trouble. But the reporter noticed a person at this time, a Chinese teenager who was known as the "invincible mid-range shot king among high school students" and did not say a word when asked this question.
On a whim, the reporter asked again individually: "Aix, who do you think is the strongest among your group?"
Zhang Hao was silent for two seconds, looked around, pursed his lips and said, "Me."
